


Tap Dance

by ImhereImQuire



Category: Interview With the Vampire (1994), Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Antagonism, Gen, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 05:16:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImhereImQuire/pseuds/ImhereImQuire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia seeks to provoke Lestat and its entirely too easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tap Dance

“Claudia!” Lestat snapped.  
  
She raised her head, looked straight at him, smiled ever so slightly, then went back to her card game… and the frustratingly arrhythmic drumming of her fingers on her card table. Slow. Fast. Fast. Fast….Slow. Fast.  
  
“Claudia!” Lestat snarled again, and again was ignored as this time she pretended to be engrossed in the view out of the window. And the drumming continued, with maddening irregularity. There was no beat, no pattern to it, and Lestat couldn’t bear it. Slow. Slow. Fast, Slow, Fast, Fast.  
  
“Claudia, will you stop that tapping?” he asked between gritted teeth, obviously about to snap.  
  
She looked up at him and gave another smile, this one a mocking parody of sweetness before raising her petite hand into a gesture which was continental without being remotely ladylike… then resumed the click of fingernails against lacquered wood. Slow. Fast. Fast. Fast. Slow, slow, slow, fast.  
  
Lestat jumped up, beyond furious by this point. “You irritating little madam! If you do not stop that infernal tapping I am going to yank out your fangs and make you eat them you annoying little pest-“  
  
Claudia noticed Louis in the doorway vital moments before Lestat did, and changed her demeanor accordingly, contriving to look as stunned by his violent outburst as her dark haired father was.  
  
“I’m sorry, Lestat!” she exclaimed, raising her hand to her mouth and shrinking back from him as though she were deeply startled. “I didn’t mean to disturb you. There’s no need to be so aggressive!”  
  
Lestat looked baffled for a moment, then his eyes narrowed, suspicions confirmed with a glance over his shoulder. “Louis! Would you tell her…”  
  
Louis sighed. “Claudia, stop antagonising Lestat” he sighed, clearly not taken in by her show of bewilderment at their maker’s fury.  
  
“Thank you! She has been –“ Lestat began, but Louis cut him off with a raised a brow which brought the temperature in the room down several degrees. “You always have to take it further, don’t you, Lestat? She wouldn’t play up like this if you weren’t so easily baited. You’re supposed to be the one setting the example…what sort of behaviour do you expect from her when you behave like this? Look at her. She’s just a child, Lestat. A little girl! You are an adult! Can you at least *try* to act like one?”  
  
Louis’ had only raised his voice to Lestat, but it was Claudia who looked as though she had been slapped. I will be twenty one in three weeks’ time, she thought bitterly. But to him, I shall always be a little girl.


End file.
